Chapter 9
There was a part of Mya that worried, even as she sank against Kayden's chest and arched into the kiss, that they would be discovered.
That part was very distant.
The rest of her was consumed with Kayden, the way his arms felt wrapped around her waist and the way his lips pressed against hers. She breathed in the scent of him and forgot entirely that air was a necessary thing.
When they at last broke apart, both of them were breathing harder, and Kayden was grinning like a fool.
“I’m glad I did not wait,” he said, and then he drew her in again.
The second kiss was slower, gentler this time. He explored every inch of her mouth, his hands sliding over her body as they breathed in each other's air.
Mya's knees threatened to give out under the onslaught of sensations. It felt like she’d been waiting to kiss him forever. His muscular body seemed every inch as strong as she had dreamt it would be. His tongue seared a blaze inside of her that awoke her very core.
Their kiss broke, but Kayden did not let her go. The hand on her hip was curled around the curve of her corset, holding her close. She could still feel the warmth of his breath against her lips, the heat of his skin pressing through cloth.
“You look enchanting tonight,” he said, his voice husky and low. “I meant to tell you so, before you decided that I was no longer acceptable company.”
“I didn't want us to get caught,” Mya said, her cheeks heating—from the compliment or their intimate position, she wasn’t sure.
“If we’d been noticed, there would have been gossip, and I have Lottie’s and Ella's reputations to think about as well as my own.
I'm not going to repay their generosity by ruining their public images.”
Kayden laughed. “You are so very earnest. But I hardly think Lottie and Ella have any great concern about their reputations. Or did you not hear about Eleanor's little moment tonight?”
“If you're talking about her turning down that dance offer,” Mya said, “I was there. Turning down a man for a dance, even if it is done in a somewhat rude manner, is not nearly as bad as being caught kissing in the refreshment room.”
“And yet, we were not caught. So there’s no need to worry.” He smiled, and it had a wicked edge. Mya took a tiny step back, already feeling overly warm. “I will tell you something else, as well.”
“And what is that?”
“That being caught kissing in the refreshment room is not nearly as scandalous as being caught naked in your bed with me.”
Mya laughed. “Is that how you think this is going to go, then?”
“That is exactly how I think it is going to go,” Kayden said, taking another step forward. She matched it with a step back. “If you had not wanted me here, you would never have opened the door.”
“I could still tell you to leave,” Mya pointed out.
“You could,” Kayden agreed. “But would you?”
The next step had the back of Mya’s legs pressed against the bed. Kayden moved forward another, and then the next, until he was standing almost pressed against her body. Mya sat down on the edge of the mattress, skirts spilling around her.
“You are wearing far too many clothes,” he said.
“I am aware of that, thank you.”
Kayden laughed, and reached for the pins that held her hair up, slowly pulling them free and dropping them on the bedside table one by one. “There are ways around that,” he said, when he had finished and the copper locks were loose around her shoulders.
“Ways around clothes?”
He grinned wickedly at her. “Would you like me to show you?”
“I think I am quite aware of how—” She didn't have time to finish before Kayden had gone to his knees in front of her. The words caught in her mouth, her throat suddenly dry.
“Yes?” he prompted, eyebrows lifting.
“You are absolutely insufferable, I hope you know,” Mya said, noting the lack of conviction in her own voice.
Kayden ignored her, sliding his arms under her skirts and lifting them up over his shoulders to disappear beneath them. Heat coiled slowly in Mya's stomach as she watched him, and then felt him.
One of Kayden's hands, big and warm, slid up her thigh, slipping under the fabric that covered her to rub the bare skin above her garter. Gooseflesh ran down her arms and prickled her skin. Was he truly going to do what she imagined he was about to?
The answer, it seemed, was yes, because his hand was moving again, and then he was dragging her undergarments out of the way and sliding his tongue up the length of her sex.
Mya's head fell back, her hands curling in the fabric of her skirts, and she stared up at the ceiling without seeing it, her entire body shuddering with pleasure.
He seemed to know just the right places to drive her mad with it, and she wondered a little jealously how many other women's skirts he had been beneath.
The thought was eclipsed by the reality of his mouth on her, his tongue stroking over her.
His hands on her thighs, holding them open for him.
“Kayden!” Mya gasped, hardly louder than the sound of a breath.
She thought she heard him chuckle, muffled by the skirts and her thighs, felt the vibration of the sound against sensitive flesh. A moan escaped her. It occurred to her to be grateful that there was no one else in the guest wing of the house.
No one to hear the increasingly loud sounds he was coaxing from her throat.
Mya's thighs trembled against his shoulders, muscles drawing tight. Kayden must have known she was close, because the flicks of his tongue against the little nub of pleasure at the apex of her sex came faster.
“Kayden,” she said again, breathless and shaking, fighting the embrace of the corset for air. “I—”
The words faltered and failed as the pleasure that had been coiling in her core exploded outward, racing up her spine and down her limbs, filling her whole body with heat.
Colors danced across the backs of her eyelids.
She might have cried out. The sound rang in her ears.
His mouth gentled, and then stopped, one of his hands rubbing circles over her thigh.
When she slowly opened her eyes, Kayden was leaning over her where she'd collapsed onto the mattress and wearing a smile that was entirely too pleased with itself.
“You are a menace,” Mya said, the words heartfelt, if still a little shaky.
“Are you telling me you wouldn't like me to do it again?”
“Clouds in heaven,” Mya groaned. “If you do it again, I think I shall die.”
He laughed, then. His smile clearly proud of what he had done to her. He had obviously enjoyed it as much as she had.
Giggles welled up in Mya's chest, and she had no choice but to let them free, still giddy with her recent release.
“I would hate to be the death of you,” he said, sinking down to sit on the edge of the bed beside her and stroking his hand over the curve of her waist. “You will not be nearly so much fun if you are dead.”
“What an accolade. I am most honored by your—”
Kayden cut her off with a kiss, leaning down and pulling her to him with a big palm cradling the back of her head. The kiss was long, and slow, and the perfect companion to the glow of pleasure that still hung over her. Mya stopped attempting to be witty, and just sank into it with a moan.
“You talk too much,” Kayden said against her mouth, voice soft and teasing.
“So I have been told,” Mya answered, and nibbled at his lips, wanting him to kiss her again.
Slowly, his weight sank down against her, and his palm curved against her cheek, guiding her where he wished her to be as his tongue claimed her mouth. Mya was more than willing to go along with that plan.
“If I do not get you out of these clothes in a moment,” Kayden said when they paused for air, “I am going to have to pay for ruining them.”
“Then get me out of them,” Mya said, giving him a grin as he pulled back to look down at her. “You have hands.”
“I ought to leave you here like this, just for that.”
“Ah.” Mya laughed, looking pointedly at the rather pronounced bulge in his trousers. “But I am not the one who is desperate.”
“Minx,” Kayden accused, though it sounded complimentary at the same time.
He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, spinning her around before she had time to steady herself. She might have stumbled had it not been for his hand on her shoulder, holding her up.
“Confound these things,” he mumbled as he began working on the fastenings of her gown. “Why must they be so impossible to get out of?”
“For exactly this reason, I think,” Mya answered, swallowing a laugh in case it might prompt him to actually follow through on his threat. “They do not want you despoiling innocent young ladies.”
“Innocent, indeed. I do not think I imagined that you are just as eager as I am.”
Mya did laugh, then. Kayden made a frustrated sound at her back, just as he managed to actually succeed in his task and get the gown to slide from her shoulders.
“Now you have to lift it off,” Mya instructed.
“I am aware of how clothing works, my dear.”
“Not that I have seen thus far,” Mya retorted.
“Unbelievable.” Kayden laughed as he lifted the gown over her head, tossing the whole thing in a rumpled pile on the bed. “I treat you like a queen and you do nothing but abuse me.”
“Perhaps you need to be taken down a peg.” Mya unfastened the straps that held the crinoline in place and let it fall, folding in on itself as it went. Then she gathered it up and laid it and the dress in the chair by the window.
“Clothes, clothes, and more clothes.” Kayden sighed. “I swear they aim to convince men that there is not a human form at all under all that fabric.”
“That is one way to protect women's virtue. Make it entirely not worth the bother.”
Kayden's eyes slid slowly over her body, now hidden only by the most basic undergarments, and Mya felt the look like a touch. “You will always be worth the bother,” he said, voice dropping low and husky.
Mya's cheeks went pink, but she didn't give him the satisfaction of fluttering about. “Flattery will not help you here.”